Christmas ornament hanger/holder

ABSTRACT

A holder for storing Christmas ornaments which has a container with at least one removable side to access the inside of the container and hooks to hold a hanger on which the Christmas ornaments can be placed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates, in general, to a container, and, in particular,to a container for hanging and holding Christmas ornaments.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

In the prior art various types of holders have been proposed. Forexample, U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,971 to Fisher discloses a display box witha transparent structure for holding and displaying jewelry.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,985 to Shih discloses a box which with a lift upstand for holding jewelry.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,873 to Mech discloses a case for holding jewelrythat has pivoted doors which open to display the contents.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,184 to Greiner discloses a jewelry holder with atleast one removable self-standing stand that can be removed from theholder.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a holder for storing Christmasornaments which has a container with at least one removable side toaccess the inside of the container and hooks to hold a hanger or hangerson which the Christmas ornaments can be placed.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improvedholder/hanger for Christmas ornaments.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improvedholder/hanger for Christmas ornaments in which the ornaments can bestored safely.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improvedholder/hanger for Christmas ornaments in which the ornaments can bestored easily and conveniently.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improvedholder/hanger which will save the user time taking ornaments from theholder/hanger and placing them on a Christmas tree, and also save theuser time in removing ornaments from the tree and returning them tostorage.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will befully apparent from the following description, when taken in connectionwith the annexed drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is perspective view of the container of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspectivean elevational view of the hanger used with thepresent invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the drawings in greater detail, FIG. 1 shows thecontainer 1 part of the present invention. The container has a top2,back 4, sides 3, and a bottom 5. The container can be made from anysturdy material such as, but not limited to, cardboard or plastic. Thetop 2 of the container has a handle 13 which can be made unitary orintegral with the top. The handle can be used to carry the container toand from a storage area. The top 2 also has indicia such as the letters“TOP” which will indicate to the user which way the containers is to bestored so the hangers 15 will not fall off the hooks 12 attached to thetop 2.

The container 1 also has a front 6 which is hinged at 7 to the bottom 5so the container can be opened to place items into, or remove items fromthe container. The front 6 has a catch 8 which has a fastener such as,but not limited to, VELCRO hook and loop fasteners 9 which cooperatedwith a fastener10 on the top 2 to fasten the front 6 closed.

OrOn an inside surface of the top 2isare fastened a plurality of hooks12 which will hold the hanger shown in FIG. 2. It should be noted thatalthough only two hooks 12 are shown, any number of hooks can beattached to the top without departing from the scope of the presentinvention.

As shown in FIG. 2, a hanger 15 which will be used to securely fastenthe items, such as Christmas ornaments, within the containers. Thehanger has a closed loop 14 which will slide onto the hooks 12 whichwill support the hangers 15 within the container. The hanger 15 has aseries of ridges or corrugations 16 which will provide a place to placethe hooks, that are normally attached to Christmas ornaments. Byproviding these ridges or corrugations 16 on the hanger, the ornamentscan be easily and quickly hooked onto the hanger between the ridges orcorrugations16 which will securely hold the ornaments during storage andprevent the ornaments from sliding along the hanger and becoming tangledor dislodged and lost. In this way the hooks attached to the Christmasornaments will not become lost or tangled during storage. As shown inFIG. 2, a plurality of fingers or projections 17 which will be placedalong the lower portion of the hanger, and can be used to hold ornamentswhich have “looped” hangers. This will, therefore, provide a convenientstorage container for Christmas ornaments and will make the job ofplacing ornaments on a tree and removing them from the tree and placingthem in storage an easier task.

Also, it should be noted that other indicia could be placed on thecontainer such as “Fragile” or decorative holiday printing to indicatethe contents of the container. This would aid in retrieving the propercontainer from storage.

Although the Christmas Ornament Hanger/Holder and the method of usingthe same according to the present invention has been described in theforegoing specification with considerable details, it is to beunderstood that modifications may be made to the invention which do notexceed the scope of the appended claims and modified forms of thepresent invention done by others skilled in the art to which theinvention pertains will be considered infringements of this inventionwhen those modified forms fall within the claimed scope of thisinvention.

1. A container for storing Christmas ornaments, said containercomprising: a box having a top, sides, back, bottom and an open front, afront portion hinged to said bottom, said front portion being movablefrom a first position in which said front portion closes said open frontof said box to a second position in which said front portion uncoverssaid open front of said box, means for holding said front portion insaid first position, said top of said box having an inside surface andan outside surface, support means for holding a hanger mounted on saidinside surface of said top of sail said box, and a hanger means forholding Christmas ornaments detachably secured to said support means,said hanger means having means for engaging said support means forsecuring said hanger means on said support means, said hanger meanshaving a top portion and a bottom portion, said bottom portion having aplurality of ridges space spaced therealong.
 2. The container forstoring Christmas ornaments as claimed in claim 1, wherein said supportmeans is at least one hook.
 3. The container for storing Christmasornaments as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bottom portion also has aplurality of upstanding projections extending therefrom for attachinglooped ornament hangers.
 4. An ornament holder, comprising: a containerhaving an opening and inside walls; a closure releasably openablerelative to the container, the closure adapted to enclose the opening; ahanger support disposed inside the container; and a hanger removablymountable relative to the hanger support to provide an open regionbetween the hanger and at least one of the inside walls of thecontainer, the hanger being configured to be mountable onto andremovable from the hanger support, the hanger adapted to hold anornament, the hanger having at least one retainer disposed along thehanger intermediate ends of the hanger for limiting sliding displacementof the ornament along the hanger, wherein the hanger comprises a supportbar and the at least one retainer includes a plurality of ridges spacedtherealong.
 5. The ornament holder of claim 4, wherein the closure ishingeably mounted to the container.
 6. The ornament holder of claim 4,wherein the closure is pivotally connected to the container.
 7. Theornament holder of claim 4, comprising a fastener to fasten the closureto the container.
 8. The ornament holder of claim 7, wherein thefastener is mounted externally to the container.
 9. The ornament holderof claim 4, wherein the ridges are adapted to retain an ornament toprevent the ornament from sliding along the bar.
 10. The ornament holderof claim 4, wherein the hanger comprises a plurality of fingers spacedtherealong.
 11. The ornament holder of claim 10, wherein the fingers areadapted to retain an ornament so as to enable the ornament to hang fromthe fingers.
 12. The ornament holder of claim 4, wherein the hangersupport comprises a hook.
 13. The ornament holder of claim 4 wherein thehanger is mountable on the hanger support to provide the open regionbetween the hanger and the inside wall of the container opposite theopening.
 14. The ornament holder of claim 4 wherein the containerincludes a front and a rear and wherein the opening is provided on thefront generally opposite the rear of the container to define a depththerebetween.
 15. The ornament holder of claim 14 wherein the hangercomprises a rod for holding an ornament, the rod having a thickness lessthan the depth of the container.
 16. The ornament holder of claim 15wherein the hanger is mountable on the hanger support to provide theopen region between the hanger and the rear of the container.
 17. Theornament holder of claim 4, wherein the closure is mounted relative tothe container and wherein the closure is moveable from a first positionin which the closure covers the opening of the container to a secondposition which provides access inside of the container.
 18. The ornamentholder of claim 4 wherein the hanger is configured to be slidablymountable onto the hanger support.
 19. An ornament holder, comprising:A. a container having an opening and inside walls; B. a closure adaptedfor covering the opening; C. a support bar removably mountable insidethe container for enabling ornaments to be removably hung on the supportbar; and D. a plurality of retainers spaced along the support bar, saidretainers extending outwardly from the support bar to limit slidingdisplacement of ornaments along the support bar and to maintain adistribution of the ornaments along the length of the support bar,wherein the retainers comprise a series of ridges extending outwardlyfrom the support bar and forming a plurality of shortened spans on thesupport bar between the ridges, said spans being adapted to support theornaments, and said ridges being adapted to limit sliding displacementof the ornaments on the spans.
 20. The ornament holder of claim 19,wherein the closure is hingeably mounted to the container.
 21. Theornament holder of claim 19, wherein the closure is pivotally connectedto the container.
 22. The ornament holder of claim 21, wherein theclosure is movable between a first position, in which the closure coversthe opening of the container, and a second position, in which theopening is exposed to provide access inside of the container.
 23. Theornament holder of claim 19, comprising a releasable fastener to fastenthe closure to the container.
 24. The ornament holder of claim 19,comprising a hanger support mounted on at least one of the inside wallsof the container, said hanger support comprising two or more supportmounts for removably supporting the support bar inside the container.25. The ornament holder of claim 24, wherein the support mounts comprisea pair of hooks connected to at least one of the inside walls in thecontainer.
 26. The ornament holder of claim 24, wherein the supportmounts are centrally located on one of the inside walls to support thesupport bar in a position spaced away from the other inside walls andthe opening.
 27. The ornament holder of claim 19, wherein the retainerscomprise a series of fingers extending outwardly and generallyperpendicularly from the support bar.
 28. The ornament holder of claim19 comprising a handle on the exterior of the container.
 29. Theornament holder of claim 19, comprising a hanger support disposed on theinside walls of the container and wherein the support bar is configuredto be slidably mountable on the hanger support.